Anti-Tragus at Earth's Edge

y ears are one of my favorite body parts. I like them a lot. So they day came when I decided I wanted something besides lobe and traditional cartilage piercings. I contemplated my ear for a while and finally decided on a favorite ridge, which (unbeknownst to me) was called the anti-tragus. Armed with a really good idea of what I wanted done, even though I had no actual name, I hopped in the car and sped toward my friendly neighborhood piercer, Chris at Earth's Edge in Winston-Salem, NC. They were still at their old location then, so I climbed the narrow staircase and walked in. I boldly marched up to Kelly, who was behind the counter, pointed at my anti-tragus, and asked her, "Can you pierce that part of my ear?" She called Chris in from the piercing area, and he stared contemplatively at my ear for a while. "I think I can do that. I've never done one before, though. It's called your anti-tragus," he said. "Cool!" I replied. "I'll be back in a week." He said he'd be ready, and
wandered back to piercing area while Kelly stared at my ear for a bit. I soon left, excited about my upcoming piercing.

I returned to Earth's Edge with two friends in tow. I decided to go in the middle of the other two -- one of the guys was getting both his traguses pierced, and the other was getting his tongue done. After the one friend's traguses were pierced, Chris washed up and set up again, and then stared at my ears and tried to scare me for a while, unsuccessfully. (Friend: "Are you nervous?"... Me: "Nah, not too bad."... Chris: "Damn. I would be.") After he finished teasing me, Chris marked my ear -- two dots and a line between them to make sure they were straight. He explained the rest of the procedure (as it was the first two-part pierce I had gotten). He pierced from the inside of my ear to the outside. First, he would line up and pierce until he hit a stick he put on the outside of my ear; after that, he would get a needle receiving tube and continue the pierce. He'd then get the CBR and put that through, let me rest for a minute, and close the ring and put the bead in it. Then he moved me to a
table where I could lie down, picked up a stick, and lined up to do the first part of the piercing. After a few deep breaths, he pierced, and stopped when the needle hit the stick. He dropped the stick in a biohazard container and pulled out a needle receiving tube. He told me to take another deep breath and finished the pierce, slipping the ring in quickly. He put the bead in, showed me his shaking hands, and commented, "That was hard." I hopped up and watched him clean, then he sat me back down and took pictures.

A few months later, I decided I wanted my other anti-tragus pierced. After spending a while deciding whether I really needed to sleep on that side of my head for a few days, I trundled myself back to Earth's Edge and started pestering Chris again. Though the anti-tragus on my left ear is smaller and weirder than that of my right, he agreed to pierce it and spent another long while staring at my ear. We spent several minutes discussing placement, and after he poked and prodded with the back end of a Q-tip for a while, he decided he could indeed make the left look enough like the right to try it (as opposed to making them look asymmetrical on purpose). He cleaned and marked my ear, removing the line a few times to place it perfectly, and finally handed me the mirror. I took a look and decided all was a go. He changed gloves for the fourth or so time, had me lie down again, grabbed several things that clanked from the tray, and lined up to pierce. I started doing a little low-grade chi
breathing and he pierced, both parts, faster than the first. He put the ring in and took a small break to change gloves before he out the bead in.

Aftercare is working fine for both of the pierces. I use antibacterial soap twice a day. They're hard to wash at first, 'cause they're sore, but they seem to be healing without many problems. Do watch out for the doctor, though - when I went in to have my ears checked out, mine gave the pierce an infection. Since it's in the way of almost everything a doctor might need to do in your ear, that's rather prone to happen, I guess, even though it shouldn't.

goodms01@wfu.edu

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submitted by: Anonymouson: 01 March 1999in
Ear Piercing

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